@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

vik

@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz

Aged RepRap core developer, ex- firefighter, emergency medic, longhair coder, Incident Creator at the Masterton Fab Lab, and a Twitter refugee.

"Si potest non bonum esse, cave."

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

scruss, to random
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

the only king I recognize

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@scruss Had to swear to it - only option to become an NZ citizen. Had to do it again to become a constable. So kinda stuck with him.

amberage, to random
@amberage@eldritch.cafe avatar

Screw "this meeting could have been an email".

What about "this YouTube video could have been a blog post"?

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@amberage Abso-frickin-lutely.

lightweight, to random
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Today's batch...

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@lightweight
Ha! I see your sourdough, and tomorrow I shall raise you crumpets!

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@lightweight Transvall Bisley .22 Rifle Cup on Sunday (came second last year, this is personal!), but heck, crumpets will keep.

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@lightweight
Tada!

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@lightweight Thankyew, need all I can get. It helps that last year's winner can't attend 😎

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@lightweight I ended up with a mega-jam and broken magazine, which I cleared and made up for with my spare mag. However it was a rapid-fire stage and in my rush to beat the clock I missed 3 points (out of 200) - the only ones I dropped. So that put me 4th. Still, not too shabby under the circumstances.

strypey, to fediverse
@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Quick thought on interactions between micro-posting servers like Mastodon, and blogging servers like WriteFreely or WordPress.

What if a micro-post app receiving a long text as a post displayed each paragraph as a separate post in the UI, forming a thread? Replies to any of those separate posts would be received by the back-end as comments on the one post received.

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@strypey Wouldn't the whole point of the note size limit mean that posting longer notes was to be discouraged?

JamesGleick, to random
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

Once again Ted Chiang has it exactly right. The immediate danger from is not that it will become sentient and do whatever it wants. The danger is that it will do what it’s being designed to do: help rich corporations destroy the working class in pursuit of ever-greater profits and thus concentrate wealth in fewer and fewer hands.

https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/will-ai-become-the-new-mckinsey

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@JamesGleick More to the point, it'll do exactly what it was trained to do rather than what the developers thought it would do.

vik, to random
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Alrighty then. Now typing on a Quirkey plugged into an Android phone. Testing 123. Is this thing on? <tap><tap><tap>

Looks like Ctrl-C Ctrl-V work anyway!

vik, to random
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Hmm, appears Android does not support international USB keyboards.

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@haydng It'll support the alphanumeric key layout but doesn't support combining characters and accents.

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@haydng Kinda. "Dead key" accents (where an accent key is automatically applied to the following alphanumeric) have been OS keyboard driver stuff since the days of MS-DOS. Even the US layout has international dead key options - just not with Android.

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@haydng PS Oh the joyous days of accidentally ending up with a different keyboard layout on your console as on your desktop!

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@haydng
I've written a good many mouse and keyboard drivers in my time. After a while everything starts to look like a keytable.

vik, to fediverse
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

While has shortcut keys on the web page to allow quick access, actually seizes control of the / key rendering accessibility search mode inoperative.

Good job I just got the "Mouse Mode" working on the pico version of the Quirkey. Will try to upload the changes using only the keyboard an see what else breaks.

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Yeah, Github is nigh on impossible to navigate using an accessibility keyboard only.

vik, to fediverse
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Ok, figured out how to navigate web pages without a mouse.

In Firefox, turn on "Caret Browsing" with F7. Use '/' to find the text nearest the desired button or link, then <TAB> to it from there.

strypey, to random
@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Who writes this nonsense?

"Get the data visibility you need to better understand and manage your trust landscape."

"Leverage powerful insights to take the necessary actions that lead to positive results for your business."

"Move from manual workflows to trust by design with automation that keeps you elevated from competition and focused on the path ahead."

https://www.onetrust.com/

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@strypey
Word salad.

vik, to random
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Cooking with wine again tonight. Wonder if any will end up in the food this time?

strypey, to random
@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

"When more than 15 percent of your words (except verbs and proper nouns) are three or more syllables, readers work with difficulty to understand your message. To reduce larger words, consider these tips: a) Use about instead of approximately; use rather than utilize; b) Convert nouns ending in –ion into verbs. Use “We considered ...” instead of “We took into consideration ...”; c) Replace endeavor with try, aggregate with total, and optimum with best."

https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/about/submissions

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@strypey Actively eschew verbose obfuscation.

vik, to random
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Here's a fun game that web developers can play:

Disconnect your mouse, disable your trackpad/touchscreen. Now navigate your website.

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@dcoderlt
Yeah. I'm particularly interested in usage by people with insufficient arms or dexterity to manage a mouse and keyboard. You're left with the on-screen keyboard approach, or the 3 million tab key approach. I've tried both.

Uh, I keep having these accidents and I've got bloody good at pretending to be a leftie too.
@deivpaukst

vik, to random
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Yay! New hardware for the keyboard is finished and the version of the Quirkey is now operational and I've been able to find some firmware bugs.

Cue a massive push to Github...

vik, to random
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Germany seems to spend a lot of its time making worthy greenspeak and then shutting down renewable power generation.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/26/german-windfarm-coalmine-keyenberg-turbines-climate

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